Max

Max is a 2002 Hungarian-Canadian-British fictional drama film, that depicts a friendship between a Jewish art dealer, Max Rothman, and a young Austrian painter, Adolf Hitler. The film explores Hitler's views which began to take shape as the Nazi ideology; while also studying the artistic and design implications of the Third Reich and how their visual appeal helped hypnotize the German people. The film goes on to study the question of what could have been had Hitler been accepted as an artist. The film was the directorial debut of Menno Meyjes, who also wrote the film. Plot In 1918, Max Rothman (John Cusack), a Munich art dealer, is a World War I veteran who lost his right arm in the Third Battle of Ypres, effectively ending his career as a painter. He returns to Germany and opens a modern art gallery. He is married to Nina (Molly Parker), but also has a mistress, Liselore von Peltz (Leelee Sobieski). Through a chance encounter, Rothman is approached by a young Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor), a war veteran as well, disgruntled over Germany's loss during the conflict and the country's humiliation by the signing of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler is also an aspiring painter, and wishes to have his artwork displayed. Rothman comes to believe that Hitler has talent, but has failed to tap his inner potential to create great art. While Rothman is aware of his new protégé's anti-Semitism, he feels sorry for Hitler, who had nothing to come home to after the war, and encourages him to delve deeper in his art. Despite his overall doubts about Hitler, Rothman agrees to take some of his paintings under a contractual basis. Meanwhile, Reichswehr officer Captain Karl Mayr (Ulrich Thomsen), sees Hitler give an anti-Semitic speech to uninterested passerby, and encourages him to go into politics and make a career out of propaganda. During a brief conversation in an army barracks, Mayr also offers to financially support Hitler by having the army pay his expenses, further enticing Hitler to join his national socialist movement, the German Workers' Party.